The Hustler’s Mindset – How to Develop It

As I put this program together, I had to really do some soul searching. One of the things I’ve learned in the last four years is you can put out great information. You can put out a ton of helpful and useful things, essentially giving people the tools to be successful, yet somehow it doesn’t happen for a lot of people.

I wondered about that and pondered over it. Then I had to really deconstruct my life and myself and think about how things unfolded for me. We live in the USA which is built on systems. If you learn the rules and regulations of those systems, you can be successful. The Hustler Mindset is a completely different set of rules.

What took me years to learn how to do was to use those laws and to facilitate and manipulate the laws of the system. A lot of people don’t really get the fact that you can do many things that will make your life better, richer and more profitable by learning this simple lesson.

When I was in that boarding house and I was going through all that hell, my life didn’t get better until I started making, what I call, conscious choices. When I was in that chair at Powertel being laid off and the guy said, “I can possibly get you two more weeks,” and I said, “No, I’ll leave now, I’ll figure it out,” I didn’t realize how pivotal that was. I want you to understand, it was an extremely emotional moment.

This guy was letting me go. I didn’t have any money in the bank. I was already living hand to mouth. In the midst of all that, I made one of the best decisions of my life. “No. I’ll go now and figure it out.” I wasn’t mad. Somehow that opened up a door of determination.

Where I’m going with this is, you have to start thinking about what you’re doing when you’re doing it. Most of us operate in reaction mode or adopt a passive mode. That day I was operating in a very active and determined mode. That was the day that set up the chain of events that led me to having my own business two and a half years later.

Another point worth mentioning relates to believing in yourself. One day I was at a storage auction and one of the old timers seemed to like me. He told me, “Don’t bet your heart on this because you can’t make a full-time living with storage auctions.” I said, “Well, I intend to.” There were a lot of people who really believed you could not make a full-time living with storage auctions. I never let that enter my mind. I just saw the opportunity.

Let’s deconstruct those two things. When you are presented with an opportunity, a task, a test or a relationship issue, how you process the information is very pivotal to the outcome. I have consulted a few hundred people now. I’ve found that a lot of people do not believe in themselves. Secondly, a lot of people don’t have the proper information. That is a big problem.

There is a group of people who are waiting on permission to be successful. People from all races are waiting for the government to make things better for them. My thought process was, fuck that! That mindset presented an ethical conundrum because when I was in the storage auction business I made a lot of money off a lot of people because they gave me stuff.

People would give me clothes I could make money off of. I couldn’t believe it. I said, “Thank you.” A lot of people considered that unethical. How I got my job at Rentacrate by faking my references is also considered unethical by a lot of people.

I sleep well at night because this is my thought process. I knew I had to move from where I was currently living to a different level. I knew I didn’t have any help, and I knew time was wasting away. I also realized I wasn’t going to rob anybody or kill anyone. There were certain limits I had set that I wasn’t going to do. I decided to use the resources or whatever I had at hand.

My upbringing told me to do the right thing, to pray and to put my problems in God’s hands. Even as a child, that philosophy never worked for me. It never did. I do believe you get assistance from the universe. Let’s say you have an ancestor or relative that looks over you. I do believe in that.

I think when you are trying to be successful, some of the biggest problems aren’t just competition, but it’s the battle that goes on in your mind. Inside your psyche, you have a set of rules and guidelines that you aren’t always aware of. They were put there by your parents, grandparents or by society.

When you start making your own rules and guidelines, it creates conflict. It took me literally three years to start to own my new philosophy or to accept older philosophies. That’s when things just started to happen. It was night and day. Every time I would default back to what I’ll call my inbred mindset that I got from your parents, I would start to fail.

You might be more successful as the result of the neighborhood you lived in versus your efforts because of your connections. When you live in a neighborhood with people who are decision makers, it is easy to get a job. I’ve actually seen people create jobs for their neighbor’s kid.

I remember seeing that at one point in my life before my Hustler Mindset was formed. I was envious and jealous. I thought, no one has ever done that for me. I was pissed off.

After I changed my mindset, I had someone do that for me. I was working for this company. It was my next to the last job I had, and I was getting screwed. Some people I reached out to took me around and helped me get another job. Networks are incredibly important. I would not have been in that network if I hadn’t changed how I thought.

Now let’s talk about the law of intent or universal law. When I was leaving Powertel, I had a strong intention to better myself and figure it out. That was my intention. There was not a lot of emotional garbage attached to it. I thought this is my situation. This is where I’m at, and this is what I need to do. My purpose was very clear.

When you go through hard times, it cuts the clutter out. At the time, unemployment benefits did last that long. It wasn’t like it is now. So, even with getting unemployment, that clock was still ticking and it was ticking hard.

I didn’t have any “woe is me” thoughts. I was running on pure intent. That’s why I tell you to go somewhere quiet and to turn off the TV and the phone and to really let some stuff go. This is one of the reasons I meditate, because I used to be unable to focus. My mind was all over the place.

If you are not happy with who you are, you can change. People get caught up in cultural narratives and believe they are who they are. It is important to remember that you can choose what you want and who you want to be with a hustler’s mindset.

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